Sauble Beach awaits word from Supreme Court on appeal of Indigenous land claim

When the large, red-lettered sign that for decades had welcomed visitors to Sauble Beach, Ont. – a popular 11-kilometre stretch of sand on Lake Huron – was changed to read “Welcome to Saugeen Beach” earlier this summer, it was stating a legal fact. But it still rankled some locals in this small cottage community, about three hours from Toronto.

After a land-claim battle that dates back to the 1990s, the local Saugeen First Nation won a victory two years ago. It convinced a judge that the area’s official map had wrongly left 2.4-kilometres of the north end of the beach out of the reserve lands promised in its 1854 treaty with the Crown. The federal government had supported the Saugeen and the ruling was upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal last year.